Building a garage shelf in 2 hours

(spoiler alert…. or NOT)

I think I have said before that there is no simple “Oh let’s do this” projects in my world. I count myself lucky if I *only* need to gather tools not find them, or, buy them. Things are getting better as we unpack and organize but it is a frustratingly slow process.

One thing I intended to start a full 2 weeks ago was build shelving in the garage. I did my research, plumbed the Pinterest pit, and consulted friends and came out with a plan with few cool things to try but the hitch was that I needed full sheets of plywood and 8ft long 2×4 and my mini van is just not up for that.

Order it you say? They deliver? Yes! I started down that path because I recall someone had free delivery. Called around last week and no, not free, but $25 is ok. Spent a few days building the cart, researching weight limits and looking at a few cool options for the next project because if I’m paying for shipping I’m getting everything for the next few projects in one shot.

Cart finally as perfect as I can make it and then I see delivery is $75…. put on the breaks, call, hear “no, $25 was never a thing” (I swear it really was!) but this puts me in a mind to just buy a utility trailer. Why shouldn’t we buy a >1K trailer to build a less than $100 garage shelf? It has been on our list for a while, this just bumped it up. NOW we need to research trailers! I already had gone down the path so we just needed to actually do the looking. That means 1 day lost to thinking, another to research, and on the third we went out at lunch and found the perfect trailer and a good price but they needed 1 more day for paperwork.

Look at that cute trailer and that (kinda) clean garage

Yesterday! Yesterday we got the trailer and I got to push ‘buy’ on my cart so the lumber guys could pull everything and I finally got the wood at the house. Now I can start? Well almost…. It would be much easier to just pull the trailer full of wood into the garage but there is a pile of boxes (much smaller than it was, I’ve been working on it) in the way so I moved them all and walked in the trailer. This trailer weighs practically nothing, nearly 100% aluminum and I had no problem walking it full of lumber into the garage.

Finally! Finally, I can start! I use my impact driver (love!) with a new star bit (love love) and some highly recommended lag screws that require no pre-drill (love love love!). I put up my back supports and then… then the battery dies. Oh well, I had to cook dinner anyway and tomorrow I think I can just get it done.

The night passes and morning comes; it is the next day. Make breakfast, pack lunches, brush 3 sets of hair and find shoes/jackets/papers and bring all the children to school. Come home and hear the beginning of the supreme court testimony and turn it off. I can see both sides, I am glad I’m not in charge of that. At 10am I get out there and by 11:15 I have this.

Lars for scale, and, to show strength. He is not 300lb but he is also not 200….

So not 100% because I don’t have the short screws I thought I had to screw down the plywood but no project can be finished in just 1 trip to the store. Given the time yesterday to anchor the backs, I would say this is a 2 hour project IF you have;

a clear plan on what you want and how to build it

ability to make the cuts and the joints without some youtube research

tools

materials

way to get materials to your house

clear space

It personally took me 2 weeks and 4 days to make a 2 hour set of shelves. I think we need a bit more reality in our building expectations. Those youtube people just skip right to the building part and make it look so easy.

My further plan is to extend right with top shelving only and to the left I’m torn between another section of 4, or, just another top shelf. Either way I’ll be faster this time because I have 5 of the 6 necessary steps to get going done already. It does feel good to finally check this one off the list.